


In Secret

by miss_aligned



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Mass Effect 2, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:45:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7448269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_aligned/pseuds/miss_aligned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan presses on, working quietly without the knowledge of the Alliance or Shepard or Cerberus. Easier said than done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Secret

“Urdnot?” Kaidan repeated the name with disbelief evident in his tone. “Do you know Wrex?”

“I should hope so,” the jailed krogan responded. “He’s the clan leader.”

Kaidan wasn’t sure if he was thrilled or upset by the news. It would have been wonderful to meet up with Wrex, but he knew that doing so was going to be dangerous. Even if he was friends with the clan’s leader, humans didn’t seem to be treated very well on Tuchanka. There was no reason for them to be, really, as the krogan homeworld was hardly a place where humans belonged. It was tempting to ask for help, but that would likely have threatened the success of the mission.

“He’s just… the only Urdnot I’ve ever heard of before now,” Kaidan said, masking his conflicted reaction to the name. “That mess on the Citadel a couple of years back, you know.”

A grunt of acknowledgement was all that he received in answer. Given the look of the krogran huddled on the floor wallowing in self-pity, he probably wasn’t even listening, let alone suspecting that Kaidan knew more than he did.

“Are you sure you won’t come along? I can get you out of here safely,” Kaidan offered, making one last attempt to return the krogan to his clan and get him out of enemy territory.

“For what? I’ve lost my honor already.” The scout kicked his feet out much like a petulant child. Perhaps it was the difference in culture, but this krogan seemed steadfast in his belief that being captured by the enemy was equivalent to death in society’s eyes. Kaidan had already been pleading with him for several minutes longer than he should have, but he couldn’t help that he suspected something else going on here. He wanted to try to help. It seemed as though the scout wasn’t quite in his right mind.

“Commander,” came a voice over the comms.

“Yes,” Kaidan responded, only now just getting used to being referred to by that title. It had felt strange and foreign and laden with painful memories until recently.

“A ship just appeared out of nowhere and sent out a shuttle to make landfall.”

A long pause followed the transmission as Kaidan reasoned through the possibilities. There weren’t many vessels that could pass so closely while virtually undetected. “The Normandy?” A lump formed in his throat at the name.

“Yes. You might want to make it quick, sir.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kaidan calmly answered as he scrambled to estimate the time he might have left to get the humans out. He’d already lost one of the team that the mad scientist salarian had brought to Tuchanka, but he was determined to get the remaining few out safely before Shepard came in and ripped the place apart.

He nodded in acquiescence to the incarcerated krogan before hauling his gun up and moving along through the Weyrloc clan bunker. It was so strange to regard Shepard or the Normandy as a source of danger. They’d served as a beacon of hope for so long. Now, with Cerberus affiliations, secretive missions, and a commander that should have been dead, things were different.

Kaidan reminded himself why he was here. After their fallout on Horizon, he was determined to help. Shepard was still determined, still very wary of Cerberus. Her distrust of the organization but loyalty to the human race was admirable, if not a bit misguided. He was trying to trust her the way Anderson surely did. He was trying to take her word for it. Actually doing so was hard.

His assignment had been to investigate a report of humans trapped by a krogan clan, and he’d managed to find them. There was no telling why Shepard had arrived, but he knew if he could get his charges out and off world quickly before she knew they were there, they’d all be better for it. He hoped that perhaps she’d been sent for purposes other than destroying the planet that was already quite a wreck, but it certainly didn’t hurt to be cautious these days.

Now that he thought about it, she may have just arrived to talk Wrex into joining her. Like Garrus, he probably would. A pang of guilt hit him for turning her down and pushing her away. It was all he could do to save himself and his broken heart, though, and maybe someday he’d have a chance to explain. He’d gone about it the wrong way, yes, but the act itself was necessary or he would have fallen apart. Seeing her standing there, right in front of him as real as real could be after so long… it was too much.

Now he was simply working around her, ahead of her. Doing what he could to make her job a little easier and safer. Anderson worked tirelessly to keep tabs on the Normandy, analyzing bits of intelligence to predict where she might head next and what the end goal might be. It was Kaidan’s job to clear the path and do so with complete silence and anonymity, nearly always on his own. It was one of the most difficult assignments he’d ever had, but the challenge was rewarding. He was becoming more wary, more confident, stronger. It was something the Alliance would not have chosen him to accomplish, which, somehow, made him want to do it all the more.

Kaidan thought that he’d have trouble convincing the humans he’d come to rescue to get out of the Weyrloc base, but given the carnage of the tests they were running, they were ready to leave. Clearly the task had been a bit more than they’d anticipated, and many krogans had died in the midst of it all. Voluntarily or not, they’d lived through some horrifying circumstances.

He’d asked the scientists to move on while he spoke to the scout from Clan Urdnot and took a quick look around. The way he’d come had been clear, so he knew that they’d be safe enough for now. There appeared to be little trust there, but that didn’t seem to outweigh the desire to escape their grisly work. He was the first person to offer them a way out in a long time, and they were willing to take their chances.

Kaidan took the opportunity to transmit new coordinates to his shuttle pilot as he moved to meet up with the researchers. There was going to have to be a new plan if the Normandy was now involved. It was likely that Joker would be aware of any and all unusual traffic or activity happening in the area so long as the frigate lingered nearby, so they were going to have to be especially careful to avoid detection. That meant it was going to be a bumpy ride.

He’d hoped to avoid having to fly directly through the sand storm he’d been monitoring since landing on Tuchanka. It appeared, however, that the storm was going to be the most reliable way to avoid detection by the warring krogan clans or the Normandy. Hastily, he explained the situation to the wide-eyed scientists and mentally prepared himself for the possibility of laying eyes on the eerily familiar Cerberus frigate or its commander. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to, that luck was on his side... just this once.

Kaidan’s wary gaze shifted uneasily as he helped load people into the shuttle, sand blasting in his face all the while. She was here. He could almost feel it. There was an inexplicable pull to stay and a simultaneous need to flee that tugged him in two directions. Looking at the desperate expressions of the people under his protection, however, reminded him that he was a soldier first and foremost. He needed to complete the mission.

He held his breath as the shuttle lifted off, shaking and shuddering in the chaos of the storm. Monitors showed nothing but dust for a long while before another shuttle emerged from the gloom a fair distance off. His heart inexplicably jumped to his throat. He wondered, for a moment, how a woman he’d vehemently pushed away still had such a profound effect on him. It took a moment before he realized that the turmoil he was feeling had crept into the expression on his face. When he turned to look at the company he kept, however, they were oblivious. Each appeared to be wallowing in his or her own personal hell after who knows how many weeks of arduous, horrifying research and experimentation. Somehow, it was comforting to know that he wasn’t alone in suffering, despite the differences in cause.

A heavy sigh escaped Kaidan as he turned away from the monitors and desperately tried to focus on the work that still needed to be done. These people needed a safe place to recover. He needed to return to his more official Alliance work and train biotic soldiers. There was so much to do. Logically, it was a waste of his time to wish that things were different the way he sometimes did, but there was something that Shepard had always unknowingly given him, and even now he realized that that hadn’t changed. A glimmer of hope.

 

Kaidan wasn’t quite prepared to snuff that out.


End file.
